NNSL (Jan 13/97) - With the countdown to Nunavut creeping toward the 800 days-mark this month, one crucial issue stands out among a host of crucial questions yet to be answered: Who has final say?

The three parties to the Nunavut Agreement have so far successfully relied on consensus decision-making to craft the recommendations of the Nunavut Implementation Commission (NIC) into the rules of Canada's third territory.

But the territorial government is concerned about what happens when it, the federal government and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) disagree.

"As we deal with more of these hard questions, things like decentralization, how we deal with staff, we will come to a log jam and have to deal with it," said deputy premier Goo Arlooktoo (left).

The Baffin South MLA was responding to questions following a press conference last Tuesday in Iqaluit announcing the territorial government's response to Footprints 2, NIC's second advisory report on the establishment of Nunavut.

"NIC has recommended if we all can't agree, we'll leave it up to the minister of DIAND to have the hammer," said Arlooktoo.

"But the GNWT is saying 'no, that's not good enough,' (and) that maybe we should be talking about a fourth party, a mediator or arbitrator."

Arlooktoo said the territorial government is hoping to resolve the issue at a meeting of Nunavut leaders in Cambridge Bay later this month.

He emphasized that the GNWT looks upon a dispute-settlement mechanism as a last resort. It remains committed to the co-operative spirit that has prevailed so far, a spirit noted in its response to Footprints 2.

"The GNWT endorses, and remains committed to, the principle that tripartite, consensus decision-making guide all decisions affecting the formation of Nunavut," the government said in its response.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Jose Kusugak said that the federal government has not yet wielded a hammer, if it in fact has one.

"Ron Irwin has been very accommodating to the people directly affected.... He wants the people directly affected to have the final say, whether we're talking about infrastructure, the interim commissioner, gender parity or the legislature."

Kusugak suggested that helping to find a way around impasses could be one of the duties of the interim commissioner.

"I think the letter of instructions to the interim commissioner will reflect that kind of responsibility," said Kusugak.

"Consensus government works with the territorial government," he added. "I don't know why they would be going against their own principle of government."